I can’t believe it was already 3 weeks ago that I was enjoying the cool sunshine at Maryland Sheep and Wool! There’s so much coming this summer, the time is flying so quickly!
I am so lucky that my best friend Renee, from Carolina Fiber Co., drove out of her way (from CHICAGO) down to NC to pick me up, and we headed up to the fest! Yep.. she drove over 800 miles out of her way just to hang out– and eat good crab of course! 
We helped Jolene and the folks at Cloverhill set up the booth on Friday. Cloverhill Yarn Shop booth is a rainbow of colors from all ends of the indie fiber spectrum. Bright yarns dyed by Celophod and Dragonfly Fibers and Wildhare fiber. Handspun art yarns from myself and Renee and Spun Monkey and WildHare. Then there’s fiber galore.. dyed tops and carded batts, silk and even fake cashmere! All dyed and spun by indie fiber artists like myself. It’s a fun place to be, and always packed during the weekend!! After set up, we headed up to Havre De Grace for our annual Price’s face stuffing. It was as good as we remembered.. and we happily stuffed ourselves silly.
Sat and Sunday were a whirlwind. I was so lucky to have gotten some nice ribbons in the skein and garment competition! I entered some skeins of handspun, my SAORI woven skirt and the shawl I wove in Atlanta, and a woven triangle scarf. I also entered the felted bag with locks I made last Spring! It was nice to get the pretty ribbons!! I included a slideshow with the garments and skeins, and their ribbons.
It’s a special weekend because I get to see friends that are often only seen at shows!! Things can get really crazy and it’s fun to have some time with friends. I don’t get to see these folks enough, so I do really love these moments we all have together- even though they can be brief and sweaty hugs.. they are special.
Of course there was shopping and cute animals!! We pet lots of sheep and scored some yummy fleeces! I did quite well, and scored some amazing icelandic, fine wools, bfl/wensleydale, leicester longwool (both a beautiful grey and white) and some super LONG wensleydale!! I will be offering fleeces on the FB page for those who want my “shopping skills” but couldn’t make the event. If you are looking for something specific and I will check my loot and see if I can share!
Of course I picked up my yearly supply of beautiful fluffy mohair roving from Peavine Farm. This year I got 20 shimmering colors.. so you’ll see some new ethereal cloud batts in the shop soon!!
[slideshow]
And NOW the Summer craze begins!! I am still going to be in Holland, teaching 2 workshops at the end of June, first few days in July! Because things are so busy.. I’ve started dyeing, carding and spinning to get ready for Stitches Midwest in August in Schaumburg. There are still spots left in my corespinning class on Thursday, so feel free to join in and spin if you’ll be in the area!! My booth will be in the same place in the marketplace as well! I look forward to seeing old customers and meeting new ones! I’ll have some new products and NEW patterns this year!! We are extra excited because Vithard Villumsen will be joining us this year at Stitches, so we’ll have his stitchmarkers for sale in the booth as well, along with his patterns (and some new ones) that he’s written for Jazzturtle Yarns! Before we leave, Vithard will also be doing a Trunk show at Downtown Knits on Friday August 2nd, and teaching a couple classes early the next week! I will post the exact classes when they are solidified! Vithard will also be teaching at a LYS in the Chicagoland area when we are there as well!!
Before we leave for Stitches, we are teaching on the Friends and Fiberworks cruise to the Bahamas… and after Stitches we are heading to Quebec to teach at the Twiste Festival! it’s going to be QUITE an August!! Then we get home and I have 2 months to get ready for SAFF, while also going to teach in TAOS the first weekend in Oct!! WOW!
With all that, there will be many updates in the shop!! I have some new product lines to share.. including 2 kinds of ROLAGS- textured art rolags for spinning funky yarns, and smooth lifesaver rolags, carded from ethereal mohair and sparkle in long colorstripes. I have also opened a NEW shop for my Textile Couture! All the things I’ve “made” from my yarns and fibers can now be found here! I’ll be updating that shop as well this weekend with more SAORI woven bags!!
I’ll hope the weather is finally warm and the flowers are blooming where you are! Things are starting to heat up here! Let the summer begin!